The Success Grower: Eight Down-to-Earth Elements For Achieving Your Goals

By Mark Schinnerer

Author Academy Awards winner! 

"Just letting life happen isn't the way to success." 

Are you like most people - growing their bank account instead of growing a successful life? Most people define success by what they have. Few people define success by the life they live.

In his new book,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Academy Elite
• Release date: Dec 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781640851047

Mark Schinnerer

Mark spent years with a dream to help others be successful in their lives and careers. Growing up on a farm, and being an avid gardener, has given Mark the experience of planning, planting, cultivating, nurturing and harvesting and the insight to re-grow his own dreams and goals. Today, he has achieved success as a CEO by using his farming and business experience to reach a level of success that allows him to mentor and help others seeking to begin their own journey to plant the seeds of their goals, nurture them through their growth cycle and reap the harvest of achievement. He and his wife Linda are blessed with three wonderful, grown children and six grand-children. They live in Carlsbad, New Mexico

Book preview

Praise For The Success Grower

"Mark Schinnerer has identified a truth many never see in a lifetime. True success doesn’t just happen. You don’t find success. Just like every other natural process on earth, success is something you grow. You plant it, you nurture it and one day you reap the rewards of your work. The Success Grower shows you how. A must read."

Ken Davis

International Speaker, Award Winning Comedian

Trainer of Communicators.

Mark provocatively pulls you into a story of personal success and growth by cultivating the seeds of the dreams we each have kept secretly hidden. Through his story, The Success Grower, you will learn how to plant the seeds of success and reap a harvest you once only dreamed about.

Jeff Brown

Creator & Host, Read To Lead Podcast.

"Having grown up on a farm I love being reminded of the lessons we can learn from nature. The Success Grower is an intriguing story of how the best business principles can be seen in the simple process of planting, weeding, watering and reaping the harvest. Dreams come to life by using the same proven plan."

Dan Miller

New York Times bestselling author,

48 Days to the Work You Love

Mark uses his experience of planning, planting, cultivating, nurturing, and harvesting crops as insight into growing dreams and reaching goals. I loved the unique metaphor.

Kary Oberbrunner

Author of Elixir Project, Day Job To Dream Job

The Deeper Path, and Your Secret Name.

"The pursuit of success for me was paramount; it consumed my every thought. However, much later in life, my quest for significance surpassed that desire many times over. Mark shares ideas and tactics in this book, The Success Grower: Eight Down-to-Earth Elements For Achieving Your Goals that will allow you to bypass many of the obstacles that get in the way of a well-lived life. This book will help you achieve the long sought after success that lies just below the surface."

Aaron Walker

President/Founder of View From The Top, Author,

View From The Top.

I love the approach Mark Schinnerer takes in THE SUCCESS GROWER: planting someone in crisis in a place where a guide appears and reveals powerful insights that lead them through the crisis is a timeless path to a great story. And that’s what this book is—a great story in the tradition of Og Mandino and many others that keeps you engaged and reminds you of the classic success secrets that we all too often lose sight of in our day to day pursuits. Along the way you’re forced to acknowledge the way we often ignore that which matters most and recognize the limits that thinking imposes. Read it, apply it, and watch your life change…a big ask for any book, but one this book can and will deliver.

Michael Hudson

Host of the Get Your Message Heard podcast

I love experiential learning, and this book is experiential learning at its best! You’ll love this journey of planting, cultivating, and harvesting. And along the way, you’ll learn lots about success and significance.

Kent Julian

Professional Speaker and President of LiveItForward.com.

Armed with a picturesque analogy woven beautifully throughout, Schinnerer adeptly ties truth and story together to create this life manual. Through parable, he reveals pivotal life elements everyone can benefit from in a poignant way so we can actually hear—and hopefully, heed. Easy to read from start to finish, this work will change lives for years to come.

Sarah Beckman

Professional Speaker, Certified Communications Coach

Author, Alongside.

The Success Grower

Eight Down-to-Earth Elements for Achieving Your Goals

Mark Schinnerer

Copyright © 2017 Mark Schinnerer

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

Published by Author Academy Elite

P.O. Box 43, Powell, OH 43035

www.AuthorAcademyElite.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Paperback ISBN- 978-1-64085-102-3

Hardcover ISBN- 978-1-64085-103-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017912174

Author Academy Elite, Powell, Ohio

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Dedicated to

Clyde Schinnerer

– my father –

the most successful

grower I know

The miracle of the seed and the soil is not available by affirmation; it is only available by labor…The greatest form of maturity is at harvest time. This is when we must learn to reap without complaint if the amounts are small and how to reap without apology if the amounts are big…You must get good at one of two things: sowing in the spring or begging in the fall…The soil says: ‘don’t bring me your need, bring me your seed.’

—Jim Rohn

1

The car came out of nowhere.

A sudden flash of red and the morning sunlight reflecting off its windshield were the only warning of an imminent collision. Alan Morris, snapping out of a driver’s stupor, instinctively swerved his car to the right and slammed on the brakes.

Skidding on the gravel shoulder of the narrow road, Alan fought for control and slid sideways off the road and down into the ditch. A loud grinding noise followed by a quick jerk, and the sound of metal hitting metal ended his slide.

He had no idea where he was, he had been driving for hours. Sleep had been futile last night. So Alan had gotten up, thrown a few clothes and his toothbrush in a bag, gotten in his car and started driving. No plan, no destination in mind, just drive. He had to get away.

But there was no getting away now. He was stuck in the ditch.

2

At 37, Alan could see his future as Vice President at Jackson Group all laid out for him. After spending his last two summers in college as an intern while finishing up his bachelor’s degree in marketing, he accepted a position as a marketing assistant. He immediately enrolled in a Master’s program, and after three years, he earned his Master’s in Marketing.

Because he was good at developing relationships with prospective customers, he earned several promotions, eventually heading up the New Client Acquisition group in the firm. His real strength lay in studying his clients and their potential markets, so he could better understand the climate they operated in and the issues of demand and supply for their products or services.

By the time he was thirty, he was promoted to Senior Marketing Manager and developed a staff that focused on creativity and innovation as the markets changed. This also included working with their client’s PR and sales departments to ensure that the market research they were doing was reliable. This allowed them to create ongoing marketing campaigns that kept their clients at the leading edge of their markets. Alan had then set his sights on becoming Vice President of Marketing Development with the firm.

Over time, as his department continued to grow, Alan became more active, getting into the details of the market research and implementing new marketing strategies for their clients. This was when he began to see a change in the new, younger staff being hired. They no longer seemed to want to spend time ‘learning the ropes’ as he had done. It was now becoming a more frequent occurrence to butt heads and have strategy sessions end in conflict. The new ideas and concepts they wanted to use had no research to back them up, so Alan felt they were too risky to even put on the table.

After a couple of years trying to get the new staff to understand and follow the business practices that had made the firm successful, he was seeing them more frequently going above him to promote their ideas. His biggest frustration was their insistence they have a ‘seat at the table’ for the development of new marketing campaigns. This continued to create more conflict, and the division between the long-term staff and the younger, more recently hired group became apparent.

It eventually came to a showdown at a department meeting to discuss the marketing plan for a new bio-technology client. Beverly Ellison, the Division Director and Alan’s supervisor, was also at the meeting.

Alan and his team presented their plan for the new marketing campaign. Beverly asked questions about their market research, the customers being targeted by the campaign, and how it would integrate with the new burgeoning bio-tech markets. Alan was prepared for the questions and answered with his research and analysis.

Then Beverly turned to a group of the younger staff and asked their opinion. This sent Alan’s blood pressure skyrocketing! Never before had the junior staff been asked for their input. They had always been a supporting part of the team.

Now they were given the opportunity to float their own ideas. They didn’t hold back, feeling they had the support of the Division Director, and laid out their own plan for a robust social media campaign that was drastically opposed to the plan Alan had championed. Alan felt he’d been set up, and Beverly had obviously been a part of it. After hearing both proposals, Beverly chose the one from the younger staff.

Alan was livid! After the meeting he asked to speak to Beverly in her office.

I can’t believe you went with their proposal, Alan said, red-faced and barely able to maintain his composure. I thought it was my responsibility to develop the proposal and submit it for review and approval. When did we decide to turn the meeting into a contest? They’re on my team, and I thought they supported the proposal we put together. I didn’t know they’d planned a coup!

Alan paced briskly back and forth across Beverly’s office with his fists clenched.

Calm down, Alan. Beverly put her hand on Alan’s shoulder. He just stared at her, choking back words he would only regret saying.

She said, It’s not the end of the world. It just seems the marketing industry is changing and it’s good to listen to new ideas. Yes, they came to me earlier and told me how they thought you didn’t value their input or their ideas. They just want to be heard, and listened to, and have a chance to develop some new concepts.

And you bought into it without discussing it with me first? Alan said incredulously, waving his arms wildly. I’ve put in a bunch of years here and have a pretty good track record of successful campaigns. I think I deserved at least a heads up before being bushwhacked!

He picked up a stack of papers on one of the chairs, threw them on Beverly’s desk, and plopped down into a chair.

Slow down, Alan, let’s give it a chance, Beverly said, standing behind him. Yes, you’ve done some amazing work here at the firm, and you’re one of our rising stars. But I think you’re also a bit intimidated by the knowledge and skills of the younger staff, especially when it comes to the new social media marketing. You used to be just as energetic when you first came. Maybe you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be new and excited about the possibilities of creating successful ideas.

I don’t know. I just don’t understand not being informed or in the loop on this. Alan held his head in his hands, resting his elbows on his knees. I’m not very happy about how this went down. I hope they know what they’re doing. I’m going to give them their shot. Let’s see what they can do. I’ve got some vacation time coming and I’m going to take it.

Beverly took a deep breath, walked over, and sat on the edge of her desk in front of Alan. She looked him squarely in the eyes.

If you need some time off, you certainly deserve it. I’m going to let you have a couple of weeks. Take the time to get your mind around this. You’re a valuable asset to the firm, and we need to find a way to integrate the younger staff and the changes in the marketing landscape.

Well, that’s just great! Thanks for not supporting me in the meeting, and now you’re telling me I need to change the way I run my department and staff. Alan stood and headed for the door. I’ll take the time off and see where my thoughts take me. Since they’re getting to run this project, I’ll just be gone. I’ll be out of touch until I get back. I’m even shutting off my phone! Alan waved his phone at Beverly.

He stormed out of her office, slamming the door behind him.

Alan finished the day, cleared up a few open items on his calendar, and left. He wasn’t sure what his future was at this point. He felt betrayed and outmaneuvered. He needed a break.

3

Alan’s hands were still shaking from the skid into the ditch and the near miss of an accident. That’s just great, he muttered to himself as he tried to restart his car. He turned the key in the ignition, but the only answer he got from the engine was a series of clicks.

Of course you won’t start, you stupid car, he yelled as he slammed his fist on the steering wheel. Who in the world would be driving down the middle of the road? He slowly shook his head, wanting to put the blame on anyone but himself. He knew he’d been mindlessly driving, not paying attention to the road.

But now, realizing he wasn’t the only one who swerved, he wondered what had happened to the other car.

He forced his door open and stepped into the ditch filled with grass burrs that clung to his jeans like frightened kittens. Slowly, but with